1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a kimchi jar and more particularly to a cold-storage method of kimchi jar by which kimchi in a jar is cold-stored for a predetermined period of time to thereafter be stored in refrigeration.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a refrigerator having a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber is used for storing deep-freezed and refrigerated foodstuffs.
However, in case kimchi is stored in the refrigerating chamber with other foodstuffs, odor generating from fermentation of kimchi makes other foodstuffs reek with fermenting kimchi odor, killing intrinsic flavors of other foodstuffs, which necessitates to store the kimchi in a separate storage.
In the former case, kimchi is stored in a jar buried under the ground for a very long time in the winter time. However it is very difficult and inconvenient nowadays for people living in apartments to bury a jar under the ground due to characteristic of the apartments.
In order to solve the afore-mentioned problems, various studies are being launched these days to keep the kimchi in a separate storage, and FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 show conventional kimchi jars.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a kimchi jar according to the prior art includes a body 10 and a door 20.
The door 20 is disposed at an upper area thereof with a manipulating unit 32 for selectively inputting various courses of the jar, a control panel 30 including a display unit 34, a handle 15 for carriage of the jar, and a door handle 25 for easy opening and closing of the door 20.
Meanwhile, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along A-A' of FIG. 1, where the body 10 is arranged therein with a compressor 12 and an evaporator 14 for transmitting the cool air generated in the course of coolant being evaporated into a cool chamber 40, a heater 16, hot wires 18 and a temperature detecting sensor 50.
Now, operational process of the kimchi jar according to the prior art thus constructed will be described in accordance with FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4.
First of all, kimchi is put into the cool chamber 40, the door 20 is closed, the kind of kimchi is selected by way of the manipulating unit 32 on the control panel 30 and a desired mode (by way of example, aging mode, refrigerated storage mode, etc) is selected and input.
Next, a control unit (not shown) generates a control signal for selectively driving the compressor 12 and the heater 16 according to the kind of the kimchi and mode to age or store the kimchi in cool state.
In other words, the kimchi is aged by the heat transmitted into the cool chamber 40 via the hot wires 18, where the control unit keeps performing aging for an established aging period (T1 in FIG. 4) by letting an ambient temperature of the hot wire 18 maintain an established aging temperature preferably 25 degrees celsius).
Furthermore, the compressor 12 is activated by the control signal from the control unit during refrigerated storage mode to circulate the coolant, which is in turn evaporated via the evaporator 18, and the cool air generated therefrom is transferred to the cool chamber 40 to coolly store the kimchi. At this time, the control unit serves to discriminate an in-chamber temperature of the cool chamber 40 cooled by the ambient temperature of the evaporator 14 detected by the temperature detecting sensor 50, where the in-chamber temperature thus discriminated is kept as a refrigerated storage temperature (preferably zero degree celsius) to thereby perform the refrigerated storage (T2 in FIG. 4).